Transat Québec-Saint Malo - 6th edition Start 11.07.2004 - www.quebecsaintmalo.com - zur Übersicht www.quebecsaintmalo.com Tuesday 20 July 2004 PRESS RELEASE N°11 Orma multihull Ranking : 1. Sergio Tacchini, 2. Groupama, 3. Géant, 4. Sodebo, 5. Tim Progetto, 6. Foncia, 7. Banque Populaire. Class 2 multihull Ranking : 1. Crêpes Whaou ! (675,3 à miles from finish) ; 2. Bonjour Québec (134,7 miles from leader) ; 3. Jean Stalaven (157,4 miles from leader) Class 2 monohull Ranking : 1. Marina Fort Louis-Ile de Saint Martin (à 1540,6 miles from finish) ; 2. Branec III ( 14,6 miles from leader) ; 3. Ciment Saint-Laurent (71,4 miles from leader) Photo : yvan Zedda© Banque Populaire seventh, the first of many Banque Populaire finally made it across the finish line of the Transat Quebec Saint Malo at 15 hours 43 minutes and 47 seconds GMT today after an achingly long approach to Saint Malo in the mist, 2 others boats within view behind making equally as slow progress in the very light airs. Lalou Roucayrol, Bruno Laurent, Gilles Favennec, Sidney Gavignet, Pierre Mas and Florent Chastel took seventh place after 8 days 22 hours, 53 minutes and 47 seconds of racing and a theoretical average speed of 13.51kts/hr. Just 4.2 miles behind at 1300 GMT Sopra Group was right on its tail with around 6 knots of boat speed, while Banque Covefi, Gitana X and Médiatis-Région Aquitaine were following, making between 1.1 and 3.7 knots within 13.7 miles of each other. At 15.50 GMT the wind has veered round to the south-west and has picked up on the finish zone. The rest of the Orma fleet are expected in before nightfall tonight. The retired Gitana XI arrived at Port La Forêt at 1200 GMT today. It has been dismasted and will be going to the CDK yard. Crêpes Whaou! had a 134.7 mile lead over Mike Birch's Bonjour Québec at the 1300 GMT Class 2 multihulls, just west of the Fastnet. Marina Fort Louis Ile de Saint Martin leads by 14.6 miles over Branec III in the monohull category, mid-course and mid-Atlantic. Eleven boats are still racing. Lalou Roucayrol has chosen a crew that incorporates some permanent members of his shore crew and sailors, as well as some brilliant " temps " like Sydney Gavignet (dinghy, America's Cup, Figaro, Volvo Ocean Race..) and Pierre Mas, director of the Défi for the America's Cup and a sailor of renown (winner of the Admiral's Cup, several Whitbreads…).Florent Chastel is not lacking in talent either with numerous sails on Mari Cha and a Trophée Jules Vernes on Orange. Bruno Laurent has also clocked up a good number of miles in racing and will took the role of technician aboard, while Gilles Favennec (Figaro, America's Cup) was in charge of the navigation among other things. The three latter sailors make up the crew on Banque Populaire. Declarations from the winning boat Sergio Tacchini: Anglo-Saxons: Damian Foxall and Brian Thompson, and French sailors Karine Fauconnier (skipper) and Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant. Damian Foxall: "I was really happy to race this edition. I raced it 12 years ago, when I was just a nipper! (Yugoslavian Maxi). I have very good memories of that. It's an exceptional race - coming out of the Saint Laurent is an amazing place. It's also the only race in the Northern Atlantic that is like Southern Ocean sailing. Obviously it's not as windy but you run along the low pressure - faster than the systems. Being on the right boat, with a crew that was suited was a pleasure. It is the nature of the race to have light winds and our boat is really suited to downwind and is certainly the fastest in the Grand Prix. Similarly there was a lot of VMG sailing with lots of class changes. We passed all the marks in the lead other than at the Madeleine Islands - the key moment though was getting the jump into the Atlantic. After that it was down to sailing strategically correctly and not compromising ourselves too much, being careful about gybing so as not to lose too much ground. We were happy to find the right balance, without compromising the goal and I think the tactics are easier when you're ahead. It was the better option up north and we had a 75 mile lead into the Channel and just kept between them and the mark, trying to put ourselves in their shoes. You have to measure the risk factor - even if strategically and tactically you want to go near the coast it is a high risk strategy because you could lose all the wind. We just went for the safest option which often means going straight to the mark. Each mile you make is a mile less that they have to catch up. We've had some good results recently and now we've won this. That's obviously a great achievement but now we have to learn how to win. Everyone wants to win but it's a different mentality altogether learning to win consistently. We've got all the means at our disposal and we're starting to make that happen. We're up another bar and it's harder to make gains. You have to really go into the details and be exceptional in every area - but only once the larger details are in place of course! There aren't any other Irish big tri sailors but we do have some good dinghy sailors like Justin Slattery, Gordon McGuire and Mark Mansfield and we do have a strong team for Athens. There are very few of us - which is a good and a bad thing! Things take a long time to evolve but the evolution curve is a lot easier when you start from zero! I've always had plans to set up my own Irish trimaran project. Sporting wise I think you have to do things at a steady pace. There are a lot of people that go straight from the Mini to a 60 foot project which is fine but that isn't the way I want to work. The rest of the season is certainly going to be very interesting. For now we can only hope that Sergio Tacchini will continue to sponsor us - it's been a very successful project so far and the rest of the season looks very interesting." Brian Thompson: "It's the best race I've ever done - the excitement, the challenge of the course, the capabilities of the crew, the atmosphere aboard, the fact that the boat was very well prepared, THE RESULT. I know what it's like to lose a race after leading most of the way as I lost the Mini Transat just 2 miles from the finish like that. Racing is not all about the journey, the destination is a big issue. It was perfect. The Saint Laurence seaway is really something. Before the start we practised our gybes - just to get up our confidence gybing in any condition. We only dropped off the top spot 3 times, we just kept fighting. It was fascinating navigation with the big scale and angles, particularly as regards the meteorology in the Atlantic Ocean System. Our expectation of the accuracy of weather reports is completely different there - it's such a huge canvas. We concentrate on getting the right systems. The nav is like all the races I've ever done rolled into one. There is luck involved - just a little cloud can leave you becalmed for 2 hours - that's what happened to Géant. It was race with lots of starts and stops which made it all the more interesting. We decided to race the Quebec Saint Malo when we finished the Challenge Mondial Assistance - its good to win on your first try. I'd definitely do it again - it's indexly downwind and there's a huge variety in the sailing. We haven't had any severe gales but when you're sailing with the wind you're much more likely to get good conditions. You change latitudes fast." Karine Fauconnier : "We were pretty anxious in the last hours. I even had nightmares last night. We had a 100 mile lead at the Fastnet and with two hours from the finish our pursuers were only 15 miles away! In fact the wind dropped out completely as the weather files did predict but not to that extreme! We knew that we still had a lead and that we were going quicker than the others but the others really weren't that far away. It would have been really terrible to have lost after having lead the race for 3000 miles. Then the wind came back in and the current was with us at Cap Fréhel. We knew at that point that things were going to turn out alright. It was always our objective to win. This was our race. We had the right boat for it, the right crew, the necessary experience on the boat. There was no other option. In Québec I was on the crew's back as I wanted everything to be perfect and for the boat to be as best prepared as possible. Very quickly I saw that they were as motivated as I was though, perhaps even more so! It is always extraordinary in Saint Malo. There were hundreds of boats around us. You could hardly see the sea. We were euphoric at the finish, you get all the positive vibes in one go. It's fabulous." Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant : "I choose the skippers that I sail with. There is him (he points to Loïck Peyron), Franck Cammas, Florence (Arthaud) and today Karine. I chose a boat to help it win. I put my experience at the disposal of the crew and I know that things will be prepared well and done well. This was by far the most competitive and therefore the most stressful edition. We kept up the pace even when he had a good lead. The race could have started again at Fréhel and we knew it. " Author: Kate Jennings PRESS SERVICE TEAM : Press Attaché: Laurence Dacoury Tel: +33(0)1 47 72 81 41 - +33(0)6 18 41 30 28 Email: ldacoury@wanadoo.fr head of the Press Department in the town of Saint-Malo: Françoise Hilaire Tel: +33(0)2 99 20 86 07 francoise.hilaire@ville-saint-malo.fr Press release writer + internet site: Camille Elbeze Tel: +33 (0)6 60 62 60 71 Email: camille.elbeze@wanadoo.fr Radio Chat Session host + writer, press releases and internet site: Pierrick Garenne Tel: +33 (0)6 16 99 03 33 Email: pgarenne@club-internet.fr Press release writer + internet site + international press relations: Kate Jennings Tel: +33 (0)6 16 43 80 08 Email: katejennings@free.fr Our correspondant in Quebec: Dominic Bourgeois In charge of the internet site, media conferences and press relations with the radio: the team from Windreport : Corentin Duroselle by email cod@windreport.com +33(0)2 40 84 27 28. quebecsaintmalo@windreport.com Aurélie Uchard +33 (0)1 55 37 03 76 au@windreport.com Carine Prost . +33 (0)6 86 00 97 91 cp@windreport.com Yannick Perrigot 33 (0)2 40 84 30 00 yp@windreport.com E-mail Press HQ : quebecsaintmalo@relationpresse.org Logistics contact for the Race HQ / Press HQ : Philippe Granier (Royale Production) : Tel : +33 6 22 15 00 10, e-mail : pgranier@royale.fr. 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